


Madman

by Kororebi



Series: Batfamily [1]
Category: Batfamily - Fandom, Batman - All Media Types, DC - Fandom, DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood - Fandom, Red Robin (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Batgirls not main characters, Other, Teen for cussing and blood, slight mentions of other characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-12 00:16:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4457996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kororebi/pseuds/Kororebi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jokers back...again. Except Bruce wants to wait this one out, the boys disagree.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This will be multichapter. I may or may not have a constant update, it will depend on how popular this becomes.

“Jokers escaped.” Only one of the four people in the Batcave jumped at the presence of the Dark Knight. Alfred then ran off to clean up the tea he had spilled.

“Again?” Tim rubbed his temples at the thought of having to deal with the maniac. The stupid clown always found his way out of Arkem despite the major funding Wayne Enterprises was giving.

“You honestly thought he’d stay put Drake?” Tim frowned as his least favorite Robin and sibling questioned him. The kid had tried to kill him to many times for Tim to consider him a friend, unfortunately Tim had no rule over whether Damian was his brother or not.

“How do you plan on going after him B?” Dick was eating the plate of cookies Alfred had left for the four of them. His Nightwing costume was covered in crumbs. Tim looked up at his mentor to silently ask the same question.

“I’m not sure yet, and although waiting is not my preferable option we need to see what he plans on doing first.” Batman removed his hood, revealing the well-known face of Bruce Wayne.

“We cannot just wait father. You know him, he’s not going to wait for you to find him and then make a plan.” Damian looked slightly ridiculous lecturing his dad. Bruce had several feet on the 10 year old, and in normal circumstances Tim would have laughed at Damian’s failed attempt. 

Unfortunately Damian was right. They couldn’t wait for the Joker to make his move and then make theirs. Innocents would get injured or killed that way. He either needed to convince Bruce to act or act by himself.

“I hate to say it Bruce but Damian’s right. We can’t wait on something like this.” Bruce paused to consider Tim and Damian’s ideas but both of the boys could tell they were not winning this. They needed a third opinion.

Damian sat down next to Dick and Tim sat on the other side.

“Dick we need your help.”

“Can’t Babybirds. B is to stubborn.” Dick stuffed another cookie into his mouth. Leave it to Dick to put full faith in his mentor’s actions. Usually this was one of Dick’s good traits; today Tim needed the opposite.

“Please Dick, you know that waiting isn’t the right choice. And if you help us Drake and I will get along for two whole weeks.” Dick and Tim’s eyes widened at that.

While Dick considered the bargain, Tim began to think about how horrible it would be trying to get along with Damian of all people. The little brat was rude, annoying, had no respect for him, and tried to kill him on multiple occasions. He was just supposed to put that aside and act like the two were…friends?

“Okay I’ll help.” Dick got up off the couch and walked over to where Bruce was. Tim scooted closer to Damian.

“Us. Get along. For two weeks?” 

“I hate it just as much as you do Drake but we both agree that we can’t wait for someone like the Joker. Trust me the second those two weeks are over I’ll have a knife at your throat.” Damian joined the two older heroes in their discussion.

“Good to know.”

\-------------------

It felt good to be home. Jason had spent way too much time on the rooftops of Gotham today and he was sore. His apartment would be welcoming and clean, as it should be.

However when Jason opened the door to his beloved apartment, it was a complete disaster. The bed covers were ripped and thrown onto the floor while Jason’s weapon collection on the wall was destroyed. The floor was scuffed and covered in bullet holes, and broken glass was everywhere. Jason pulled the handgun out of the holster on his thigh and quietly walked into the room.

It wasn’t until he saw the bloody crowbar on the bed that he put down the gun.

\-------------------------

Dick had failed them.

That was Tim’s first thought. Now there wasn’t anything Dick could have done, so Tim really shouldn’t be mad at him. But he had trusted Dick to persuade Bruce to take action. Stupid Bat was too stubborn.

This meant that Tim had to take care of it. Or at least that’s what he believed. Someone needed to look for the madman or someone was going to get hurt. And knowing Joker it would be someone he cared about.

Tim had most of his costume on, minus the domino mask and the wings. Tim loved the wings but they were such a pain in the ass to put on, and it was extremely embarrassing when he was late to meet Stephanie because he couldn’t get the damn things off his back.

Tim would need to work on an improved design later. First he would need to design a search plan and find out what plans he could put off to make more time. Sleep would be the first to go…

“Need help Drake?” Tim stopped trying to attach the second wing to glare at Damian. Tim kept eye contact as he continued to try and fail at attaching the wing. Damian silently walked over and took the piece from his hand and attached it to Tim’s back easily.

“Thanks.” Tim muttered.

“All I ask in return is that you let me accompany you in your search.” Tim froze.

“No.” Absolutely not. Never in a million years. And not just because of how annoying Damian was. Bruce would have his head if anything happened to his youngest son. Tim knew first hand how dangerous Joker was. Damian was so far lucky enough to evade the Joker, but every Robin had their personal encounter with the clown at some point. Tim would not be the reason that Damian was taken.

“What if were there to?” Tim groaned. Could he ever have time alone? Tim pinched the bridge of his nose as Dick walked towards them. 

“Well if you’re coming, why don’t we just go ahead and ask Jason to. Make it a family outing.” Tim’s voice was dry with sarcasm. 

“So mean Timmy.” Tim ignored his older brother and sat down at the Batcomputer. As he began to open several files on the Joker, Dick and Damian left to change into their own costumes.

Tim ignored most of the information. He had read it enough times to know which files he needed and which were useless. It didn’t take him long to find the list of safehouses the Joker had used in the past. Tim assumed this would be a good starting place for the search. He doubted Joker would actually be in any of them, but searching every single inch of Gotham would take to long.

He sent the files to the mini computer on his wrist and placed a domino mask onto his face just as his brothers came back in full costume. Dick was smirking, Damian was glaring, Tim was tired of his brothers.

Although Dick begged to take the Batmobile, Tim already knew they were in trouble for disobeying Bruce’s orders to wait. He had no intention of getting into more trouble. They each had a motorbike. The first safehouse was to far away to go by foot.

\--So what’s the plan Babybird?—Dick’s voice buzzed over the intercom.

“Don’t call me that. The plan is pretty simple. We search the safehouses on the list and hope that we find something.” Tim checked his wrist. Only five minutes from the first place.

\--That doesn’t sound like a plan.—

“Do you have a better idea Damian?” Part of Tim hoped he did. Randomly searching Gotham wasn’t going to work. The other part of Tim wanted Damian to finally accept that Tim was not a complete idiot.

Silence answered Tim’s question. Which was probably for the best considering they had reached the first safehouse. A small boat storage building on the docks. Most people thought that it was abandoned and unsafe for people, but looks can be deceiving. The inside was well decorated with Joker’s fatal gadgets. But everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. No one had been here in awhile. 

The three heroes walked around the wooden place silently, the only noise coming from the small waves of water below them. Tim quickly found a light switch and one light came on. A very old light hanging from the roof flickered on and off as the boys continued to search the building. 

“No one’s here.” Dick announced. “Where are we going next?”

It was true that no one was here but Tim felt like something was off. Sure Joker may have not been to this specific safehouse in awhile but Joker was almost as paranoid as Batman and would have left a trap or something for any unwanted visitors. But the safehouse had given them no issues whatsoever.

“Uh, an old jailhouse in-“ Tim was cut off by the sound of cracking wood. Suddenly the floor beneath them broke and the three fell into the dark water. Tim thanked his protective suit for both keeping out a thousand splinters and keeping out the cold temperatures of the water as he fell. However, his suit did not stop the moment of shock and it took a moment for him to figure out which way was up.

Tim’s head broke the water to hear Dick calling his name.

“Yeah! I-I’m fine. Where’s Robin?” Tim called to the older, trying to make out his brother’s shape in the now dark room.

“I don’t know, he hasn’t responded to me.” Dick sounded like he was he on the verge of panic. Tim wasn’t much better. He pulled out the rebreather he kept in his utility belt and went under again. Tim pulled out a waterproof flashlight as well. It took him far to long but he spotted the younger hero struggling against something under the water and swam towards him. In the meantime he needed to figure out what was keeping Damian down. His flashlight glared on something metallic and Tim made out the object as one of Joker’s explosive and dangerous clacking teeth machines. The things were absolutely ridiculous but deadly. This one had Damian’s left leg trapped within its sharp teeth.

Tim was right, there was a trap.  
The sandy floor was covered in half buried machines that would react when in contact in something. Tim was only feet away from Damian, when a large figure dove into the water right in front of him. The figure shot at the clacker several times until it opened its mouth again to attack. The figure took that time to grab Damian and pull him up towards the surface. Tim quickly followed.

The room was still dark but Tim found an unbroken piece of dock that he used to pull himself off.

“Nightwing?”

“Here Red. We need light now.” Dick’s voice sounded slightly frantic and Tim made his way back over to the light switch he found before. After flipping it a few times out of desperation the one light turned back on, revealing two rather terrifying things.

One being Damian’s bloody leg.

The other being Jason Todd.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason does some explaining...

Tim had a thousand questions. Probably even more but they were irrelevant right now.

How the hell had Jason found them?

Why did he save Damian?

Why is Dick hyperventilating?

The last question Tim could answer on his own. Dick was in no way a medical expert. In fact Tim was usually the medic when they went out together. His oldest brother was watching Damian bleed out and couldn’t do anything about it.

Speaking of Damian the poor kid was groaning on the floor of the docks. Jason had removed his helmet and the Red Hood was already trying to help him. Tim knelt down beside Damian’s injured leg, it looked worse up close. The usually protective costume and boots were torn to shreds and everything was bloody.

“What the hell was that thing?!” Jason finally spoke up once seeing that Tim could take over. Tim had begun cutting off a lot of the excess fabric and material around the cut so he could see how bad this actually was.

“Joker calls them clackers or something. Incredibly sharp teeth and unbreakable. At least if you attack from the outside.” Tim had ordered Dick to bring him a bucket of water. Although using the Gotham bay water would never be a first pick for cleaning wounds Tim didn’t have any other option. Once most of the blood was washed away Tim could see exactly where Damian had been injured. Five deep cuts, which would definitely need stiches but seemed to have missed any major arteries. However some of muscle was most likely torn, it would be difficult but Alfred would be able to fix Damian.

But seeing Alfred would mean returning to the cave. And returning to the cave meant certain doom from Bats. 

“Is he okay? He looks pretty bad.” Jason had been mainly silent while Tim had been working. 

Tim was about to answer when Damian began to move. 

“You look bad Todd.” The 10 year old muttered. Tim and Dick moved to help him sit up. Jason glared at his youngest brother, the bad insult answered Jason’s question. Tim knew Damian wouldn’t be able to walk properly but he had hoped the younger would at least be able to lean on Dick or Jason. Tim frowned as he watched his brother collapse under his own weight. 

“I’m fine Drake.” Damian had noticed Tim’s slightly concerned looks. 

“No your not little D.” Dick picked up Damian and the four of them began to move out of the Dock house. They were only 50 yards from the dock when the place exploded behind them. The force nearly knocked Tim off his feet and Dick was struggling to stay standing while holding Damian.

“So he knew we were going to be there.” Jason looked back at the burning building. Tim nodded. He had no idea how Joker knew that, he must have armed all the safe houses as precaution. 

The three made their way back to the Batcave without any other problems, however Tim was still dreading the debriefing he was definitely going to have with Batman.

The secret doorway behind a waterfall opened up and the four heroes drove in silently. Tim barely had his helmet off before Batman jumped down in front of him.

“What. Happened.” Bruce’s voice was stern and Tim had no idea if the guy was mad or generally interested in what happened during their expedition.

“Debrief later Bats? Damian needs medical attention.” Dick had picked up Damian again who groaned when his leg was moved too much.

Bruce nodded and radioed Alfred to ready the small med bay in the manor. He and Dick then left with Damian, leaving Tim and Jason in a very awkward silence.

“He still got that giant penny?”

“Yup.”

“What about all the uniforms?”

“Mhm.”

“Do you every actually talk to people Drake?”

“Nope.”

Tim glared at his older brother and walked over to the computer in the middle of the cave. Jason followed him, stopping to look around at the artifacts Bruce had collected since his famous death. 

“I’ve been meaning to ask, why did you show up tonight?”

Jason frowned. “What happened to not talking.” Tim continued typing. “Well if you must know I heard about Joker’s escape and figured maybe this time I could get to him before Bruce did, unfortunately I was met by Dickyboy, Batbrat, and you the replacement. Dick explained what was happening in this really girly, freaked out way and I knew I would have a better chance at saving the brat than you would so I stepped in.”

Jason’s story matched up pretty well and Tim saw no reason for the older to lie to him about this.

“How’d you find the dock?”

“Just cause I’m not a genius like you does not mean I can’t hack into the batcave computer from a distance.” Tim nodded, all the Robins learned to access the batcomputer one way or another. It didn’t surprise him that Jason had found a long distance way of receiving the information.

“My turn to ask questions. What the hell were you three doing without daddy bats to watch over you? This is something he would normally be involved in.” Jason spun Tim around in his chair so that the younger was facing him.

“Bruce wants to wait until Joker makes a move and then go after to him.”

“He realizes that a lot of people are going to die if he does that right?” Jason’s concern surprised Tim. Jason was no cold killer but usually the Red Hood wasn’t incredibly concerned with civilian lives. But then again this was Jason, not the murderous Red Hood.

“That’s what I said. And that’s why we left without Bruce’s permission.”

Jason clicked his tongue. “Bad move Babybird.”

“Bad move indeed Tim. Mind telling me why you left without permission?” Tim paled as the tall figure of Batman stared him down.


	3. Chapter 3

Tim shifted uncomfortably as Bruce stared down at him. Jason stood a safe distance away from the two. He acted interested in some of Bruce’s display cases but Tim knew the older was listening in on the conversation.

“Fine I’ll start. Why did you disobey me after I gave a direct order to wait?” 

Tim straightened. “People are going to get hurt if we wait Bruce. Innocent people. Joker’s not going to send an invitation telling us when and where he’s going to kill people. We need to go and find him first!”

“Because that worked so well tonight.” Bruce’s face still showed no expression and it was pissing Tim off for no reason at all.

Bruce continued, “You found out nothing new and Damian could have been killed. You all could have been killed.”

Tim stiffened. So this is what it was about. “You don’t need to protect us all the time Bruce. You trained us we can protect ourselves.”

“Not against him.”

“Then help us.”

Bruce turned without another word and walked out of the cave.

“I’ll take that as a no?” Jason had come back over from his hiding spot.

“This isn’t like him at all Jason. Something’s wrong, we need to figure out what it is.” Tim opened up the list of safe houses on the computer again.

“Well duh Drake. But we’ll have to figure that out later. Where’s the next safe house?”

“You know it will take weeks to search all of these, right? And not to mention that he may not even be in any of them at all.” Tim struggled to think of a way to simplify the list. Organize it or even make it smaller if possible.

“Well several of these are near major metropolises right? Just look at the camera footage and do a face scan. If there’s nothing there we can cross out those safe houses.” Jason spent a few minutes finding the footage of street cameras near the areas.

Jason’s idea wasn’t perfect. Way to many ways someone like Joker could slip past something as simple as a traffic cam, but at the moment his brother’s idea had shortened the list to 10 places. 

“These 10 either don’t have cameras or there one or two suspicious looking people around.” Jason explained while eliminating the other places from the list.

“Suspicious looking?” 

“Ah you know. Trench coat and hat covering the face.” Jason mimicked some of the men dressed like that. However his voice was laced with sarcasm. “There was something off about some of them that’s all.”

Tim heard footsteps and saw Dick walking up to them. He had changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt. And although Dick smiled at them Tim could see the worry in his eyes, his brother was still concerned for Damian.

“How is he?” Jason asked.

“Alfred said he’ll survive. He’s going to have some scars though. Last time I saw him he was sleeping.” Dick ran his hands through his hair. Tim didn’t see the need for serious concern. They all got their fair share of scars throughout the years. It came with the job.

“Any progress with the list?”

Jason typed some things into the computer that organized the information they needed.

“Yeah actually. These 10 places were either unseen by cameras or had suspicious people around them. Based on how far away they are we can search all of them within the next week.” Jason explained again.

“Good. We can start tomorrow night. I assume B isn’t going to be helping us?” Both boys nodded. There would be no help from their mentor. “Hm. Great. Get some sleep you two.”

Tim was no stranger to all nighters. He had pulled many during his days as Robin and barely slept now with his role as Red Robin. Jason had retired shortly after Dick had left. He also told Tim to get some sleep.

Tim sipped his coffee and turned back to the computer in front of him. He had at least changed so his costume was no longer an inconvenience. Jason and Dick may be able to put Bruce’s strange behavior behind them but Tim couldn’t. He was a detective he knew when something was wrong.

Tim opened up all the recent cases that Bruce had filled out. 

Riddler, Two Face, Killer Moth… Nothing strange had happened in the past few weeks. Bruce hadn’t fought any mind control people really so that wasn’t a cause either. Ivy could have poisoned him but she was locked up in Arkem. 

Could Bruce possibly be so concerned over them that he had to endanger others lives? That wasn’t like him. So there has to be something else. Tim continued searching.

Tim was in the middle of reading a small crime case when an alarm went off on the computer. He jumped slightly and looked at what the alarm said.

“Wake Up.” Oh. It was just Bruce’s morning alarm. But that means Tim had spent all night awake and had found nothing to explain Bruce’s odd behavior.

6AM. Tim was out of coffee and decided this was a better time to go upstairs.

 

“I’ll be at meetings all day today so Alfred you’ll have to check on Damian. The rest of you, stay at the manor.” Bruce was talking about later tonight. Tim had downed his second cup of coffee and his adoptive father left the manor.

“Jason still not up?” Tim questioned Dick. 

He shook his head and yawned. “I should’ve slept in to.” Tim nodded in false agreement. Despite his lack of sleep his head was spinning with possibilities for the two major problems he had.

Joker had yet to make a move or if he had they had yet to hear about it. And Bruce still had not changed his mind about helping them.

“Go sleep Tim.” Dick had sat down across from Tim. He stared at his brother. 

“I’m not tired.”

“Lies. You never came upstairs, which means you were up all night working. Plus you’re on your fourth cup of coffee. Go sleep. Ill tell you the second something happens okay?” Dick took Tim’s coffee cup from him.

“Fine.” Tim walked to his bedroom and flopped down on the bed. He figured he could just use his laptop to do more research but the second his head hit the pillow he realized how tired he actually was.

Tim’s dreams were all in the same place. The old jailhouse where Joker had tortured him for weeks. He could here the laugh that used to make him sick to his stomach. He could almost feel the pokes and prods of the things Joker used on him.

_Oh come on Little Birdie, why won’t you sing for me? ___

Tim’s eyes shot open and he sat up. He quickly scanned the room. It was still his, he was still in the manor. Tim could feel his neck lined with cold sweat and the blankets were a jumbled mess.

____

He hadn’t had nightmares this bad since he was first rescued by Bruce. Then he would scream and kick in his sleep. Tim had thought he had control over those images. Tim looked at the bedside clock. 4PM. Dick had let him sleep for almost 10 hours. 10 hours to long.

____

He made his way downstairs. The sweet smell of Alfred’s cooking surrounded him and he followed the scent to his three brothers relaxing in the kitchen with a plate of freshly baked cookies in the middle of them.

____

Damian’s leg was bandaged but it didn’t seem to be bothering him as much as Tim had expected. Jason and Dick were arguing about some game character or something else unimportant.

____

“You look like shit Drake.”

____

“Thanks Jason. You look fabulous too.” Tim grabbed one of the cookies. He noticed his brothers were staring at him; waiting for an explanation.

____

“Couldn’t sleep.” Tim assumed Dick would have some clue of what happened the others would believe what he had said. 

____

“How about some dinner and then you boys can continue your, project.”

____

**Author's Note:**

> Also on fanfic.net  
> \--------
> 
> Ive never done Tim's POV, hope i didn't screw up to badly


End file.
